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GW · Guinea-Bissau · →

Quebo fire, 5 May 2016 Quebo

Out · last detection 18 May 2016, 13:47 UTC

The fire started on 5 May 2016 in Quebo, Guinea-Bissau, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,657 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 4th largest in Tombali since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 5 in Guinea-Bissau in 2016, of 46.

Burnt area
2,657ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
5 May 2016 – 18 May 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sectors
Started on
5 May
2016
Heat detections
78
in a single hotspot: 206 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 May18 May

How it evolved, day by day

59111214151718

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

40°high
40km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.8 mm on 27 May.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Quebo where it started
    2,675 ha reached on 5 May
    2.5 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
5 May 39.0 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 May 36.3 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 May 36.3 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 May 37.5 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 May 38.7 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 May 39.5 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 May 40.1 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 May 39.6 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 May 36.5 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 May 36.0 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 May 36.1 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 May 35.6 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 May 38.1 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 May 37.7 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 May after 35.7 °C 46 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
20 May after 35.4 °C 47 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 May after 34.1 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 May after 36.0 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 May after 37.1 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 May after 36.4 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 May after 35.7 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 May after 32.7 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 May after 36.4 °C 43 % 30 km/h 5.8 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 28 Apr 2016
After · 25 May 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 78Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Guinea-Bissau ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Quebo fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 May 2016 to 18 May 2016 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 May 2016 to 17 May 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,657 hectares (26.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Quebo (2,675 ha, 2.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea-Bissau (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.